Incidents of Suspicious Letters Containing Powdery Substance and Threats Target Supreme Court Judges in Pakistan
Following the incident involving the Islamabad High Court (IHC) jurists, there have been reports of letters containing a suspicious powdery substance and threatening messages being sent to Supreme Court (SC) judges, including Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, as confirmed by the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Operations during a session before IHC’s top judge on Wednesday.
The DIG Operations informed IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq during the hearing of a cipher case that four Supreme Court judges had also received similar letters. This revelation prompted questioning from the IHC’s top jurist about the events of the previous day and the suspicious letters suspected to contain anthrax powder.
It was revealed that on April 1, the judges who received such correspondence included CJP Isa, Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, and Justice Aminuddin Khan. The letters have since been handed over to the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) for further investigation.
Furthermore, it was mentioned that a letter was also received by the senior-most Justice of the top court, Mansoor Ali Shah, posted by a woman named Gul Shad.
The DIG Operations stated during the hearing that all envelopes containing letters and suspicious substances had been sent for analysis to the lab. Additionally, the police department had contacted the post master general regarding the inability to properly read a stamp.
Moreover, it was confirmed that judges from the Lahore High Court (LHC) had also received similar letters on the same day.
The IHC chief justice inquired about the steps taken by the police department apart from analyzing the letters, such as obtaining CCTV footage and determining the origin post office.
The DIG Operations mentioned that it appeared the stamp originated from an area in Rawalpindi.
A CTD officer informed the court that, according to initial investigation, the letters were sent from the General Post Office (GPO) Rawalpindi and had been deposited through a letterbox.
Some of the letters were traced back to a person named Resham, while others were posted under the name Reshma.
The IHC CJ criticized the police officers for their failure to decipher the postal stamp.
The previous day, the IHC chief justice, along with eight other judges, received “suspected anthrax-laced letters” following the Supreme Court’s suo motu notice regarding allegations against spy agencies.
A police team, including experts, initiated a thorough investigation to collect evidence and determine the nature of the powdery substance after the eight IHC judges received letters containing suspected anthrax powder along with threatening messages.
The letter was reportedly sent by a woman named Resham without providing her address.
It was reported that a court staffer accidentally dropped an envelope containing the suspicious powdery substance, resulting in extreme irritation in the eyes and burns around the skin of his lips.
All suspicious letters have been handed over to the police for further investigation.
A case was filed at the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) Police Station in the federal capital based on a complaint from a branch clerk, Qadir Ahmed, who received and dispatched the post.